Roderick

Wow, we were having a generally cool, discussion in this topic, but suddenly it's a polarized mess again. You commies un yer socialist way'uns! Thanks, Sully. Supersonic Electronic can not match this, because it was a real thing: kA5GkLM5C7M

That was depressingly awful. Caught up in facile stereotypes of what it means to be human. Arbitrary nonsense, and he doesn't even understand it. What an unimaginative person.

THIS IS NO COMEDY THIS IS OUR LIFE Also, thank you for posting Freeman's Mind. I had wanted to see it for a while, and now finally have begun. It's terrific.

I want to check it, because Satoshi Kon makes pretty awesome things. If I'm not mistaken, Paranoia Agent was sort of a (visual/auditory/narrative) precursor to Paprika.

This is cruelty. Leave Tanu alone!

You misunderstand: though there IS an older Toward the Terra anime, the one I'm referencing is only a few years old. It's based on a 70s sci-fi manga though, at the time quite revolutionary written and drawn by a female mangaka. Up until then they would never do sci-fi or anything other than cutesy manga. (Fun fact: still before that time, it were MALE mangaka who did everything in the industry, including the cutesy shojo. Yeah.)

Here's some titles I watched recently, that weren't bad: - Haibane Renmei, a quaint, quiet anime about angels in a rustic city by the studio that did the excellent, aforementioned Serial Experiments Lain. - The new Evangelion films. I didn't know that was even necessary to begin with, but now that the second one is out, I must say I really like them. They put Evangelion's madness through a prism, focusing what is cool about them (wildly animated battles, crazy NERV machinations) and cutting away a lot of the painful fat where Shinji is just being a teenage whiner. Good good! - Toward the Terra, the modern anime adaptation of a sci-fi classic. It's old-school in terms of storytelling, but it's charming. Of course it seems like anime is only about bouncing fan service nowadays, but that's a skewed perception. Anime has always been like this, but there's usually been good stuff in there too. It's hard to look past the squiggly awfulness of series like Highschool of the Dead, but we've also had Deathnote, for instance. It's just a matter of where you look. Anime is a broad industry. There's something for everyone.

I want Skyrim noooooowwwwww /whine And play it for a whole year.

You're right that it was more misogynist than sexist, but this is pretty much what David Jaffe does, he uses powerful, crass imagery to comedic effect. I also don't think his words ring quite the way you describe them. He was using a provocative metaphor to describe something. He's not saying anything about using women as fleshlights and the vibe I get from David Jaffe is that he is by no means a womanhater. For one, his wife would disagree. Why is this important? Because a person's intent is extremely relevant. It's context. That's why David Jaffe isn't a womanhater. He doesn't feel that women are sex objects, and that wasn't the point of what he said*. But it IS why Jim Sterling and Daphne whateverhernameis are horrible people, because they DID mean all the hurtful, idiotic things they said in their vicious attacks on one another. (* Obviously I don't know if David Jaffe is a womanhater or what he means or thinks. This is just the vibe that I get from having heard him speak over the years.)

Someone taking offense at David Jaffe saying something mildly, borderline sexist? That's worse than taking offense at Penny Arcade for making a rape joke.

They both deserve a visit from the Dickwolves tonight. I dare not guess who'd be more unnerved by that, of the two.

Crows with tools?! This is the fucking end. All hail Corvus Sapiens! Love the politics in this thread. As a Dutchman, who lives in Commieland, I must say that while politics everywhere have a tendency to get either corrupted or populist (I despise with passion the current rise of populism, it makes me extremely wary and depressed for our political future), I do believe there is a way to make it work. It's the social liberal (European version of the) third way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way_%28centrism%29. It's a meeting of 'capitalism' and 'socialism', so to speak, with a free market restricted by government surveillance and rulings, an emphasis on education and technological advancement, and pluriform consensus. Ideally (a personal preference) it nudges a little to the left when it comes to keeping some service-based industries in the hands of the government, such as postal services, energy provision and public transportation. It goes without saying this system works very well with health care plans and a social safety net. We have a system that works roughly like this in the Netherlands, though in the last decade it's been steadily undermined and broken down by the illconceived desire to privatize everything and diminish the government. There is an absolutely astonishingly stupid hatred towards the government here, and a resentment towards civil servants. Our country works fine, and yet people act as if we've got a huge, sluggish bureaucracy that's weighing us down. The truth is that we're one of the most efficient (non-corrupt) bureaucracies around. Yet stupid populism and the rise of idiotry (I can only assume??) seeks to burn it to the ground for no good reason but a gut feeling. Oh democracy, save us from yourself! Sorry for the rant!

From the look of it, both are immature, gutteral people whom I wouldn't want near me. John Gabriel's Great Internet Dickwad Theory indeed. PA's dickwolves joke was funny though, and not really about rape, but whatever.

CGI Jeff B was weird, but ultimately I didn't care enough to let it break the fantasy. I loved Michael Sheen's over-the-top, Bowie-esque night club owner That was easily the best scene of the whole movie. Tron 3 would be a tremendously bad idea. The whole value of Tron, like I said, was in its visual and auditory spectacle. A new Tron was needed for a modern era, but a second one would only be about expanding the story -not the franchise's strongest suit.

Am I awful for liking Tron Legacy? Sure, the story was bad, but not much more than Tron's. The visuals were really great, as was the soundtrack. Good enough for me!

Man, I wish we had czars over here! We have a real shortage of czars in the Netherlands.

I could use a good conf grenade right about now

I borrowed Deadly Premonition from a friend to try it out and what people said in this thread is correct (though I dislike all of the gameplay instead of finding it charming or adequate). I'd like to add something however, which I don't know if it's been said yet: this game features a ton of smoky sax.

For us I'd like a reinstalment of the queen with proper power.

Here's to enlightened and democratic governments!

Brain blown!

Hey, cool. I'll look into it. I might get NHK drama withdrawal soon. Fortunately, they make a swell series like Shinsengumi! every year, so there's tons of quality material out there. What a great thought!

I just watched the last episode of Japanese historical drama series Shinsengumi!, made by the NHK network (the Japanese equivalent of the BBC) in 2004. 50 One hour-long episodes detailing the struggles and passions of a group of men in turn of the century Japan, going against the tide of history. For over half a year this show had me laughing, crying and sitting on the edge of my seat. I got so into it (as aficionado of Japanese culture and history) I created a Shinsengumi cosplay to wear to conventions and for special occasions. This won't be for everyone. Japanese drama can get a little weird for Western sensibilities: though at its root it's a slow-paced soap not unlike The Tudors, there's a certain exaggerated camp to it that you have to get used to -and that's beside the difficulty of getting through the first few episodes where one is assaulted by dozens of Japanese names and faces belonging to people all dressed the same, making for quite a tough charge. But once you get through it, the emotional rewards are significant. If you have a taste for Japanese history and culture, Shinsengumi! will manage to tug at your heartstrings for months and make you want to be a samurai. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinsengumi!

Let's herald the return of I already hate your game! Skyrim deserves a certain level of positive reporting, since it does genuinely look like an interesting thing and it has a pedigree of some renown. The GameInformer articles I see as one big corporate cross-over though. They had the exclusive in print, now they have a somewhat official portal... I don't consider it journalism: it's a written out fact sheet, and that's fine. I did go 'really?' when in the article about the combat the people speaking seemed pretty excited about the special kill animations. Rrrrrreally?

I watched Skyline in the sneak just now and I can safely say: worst movie of 2011 confirmed. It's quite atrocious. The characters are all unsympathetic douches, the event that takes place is poorly conceived and horribly executed and every bit of painful, sincere dialogue met with roaring laughter from the audience.